Powers/Abilities: Able to fly and to enter space without requiring
external life support systems. Able to fire bolts of energy. Able to turn
invisible.

History:
Taddeus Tenterhook was a lonely, alienated, hunchbacked teenage orphan who
became accidentally transformed by the explosion of a "luminotron" device
into the golden, super-powered "Man of Light" - Photonik. With the help of
neuropsychologist and super-powered mentalist, Dr. Nazel D. D. Ziegel and
the street urchin nicknamed Tom Thumb, Photonik fought a variety of colourful
super-villains, from the space-born invader, the Minotaur, to Maelstrom,
Lord of the Lower Depths, and ComteVampyr, the Vampire of New York. He was
pursued by Lt. Wilcox of the NYPD who wanted to arrest him for breaking the
law with his vigilante activities.

Comments: Created by Malcolm Naughton (pseudonym of Marcel Navarro)
and Cyrus Tota.

After the success of the Marvel Comics translations launched by Editions
Lug in 1969, Publisher-Editor Marcel Navarro decided to create his own brand
of French super-powered characters. The first of these was Wampus (1969).

Then, in
1972, Lug launched the magazine "Futura", which featured several characters
such as Jaleb the Telepath, Homicron, The Time Brigade, The Other, Larry
Cannon, Jeff Sullivan, etc. and ran for 33 issues until 1975. "Futura" was
followed by the short-lived "Waki" (1974), about a prehistoric hero whose
colorful adventures took place in a post-cataclysmic world, "Kabur" (1975),
about a mythical warrior hero and Lug's answer to Marvel's Conan, and finally
"Mustang" (Series II) in 1980.

While the above series had all been worthy efforts, none had met with the
success Navarro had been hoping for. Certainly, none rivaled the success
of the Marvel material. Navarro then decided to call on writer-artists with
a better understanding of the super-hero genre, and try them in a new magazine
and a new format.

That magazine was originally going to be entitled "SupHeros" but, for
business reasons, at the last minute, Navarro decided instead to revamp one
of Lug's existing western magazine "Mustang". With No. 54, "Mustang" therefore
became a full-fledged super-hero comic.

Unfortunately, the new "Mustang" was not profitable enough - at least
compared to the relatively inexpensive purchase of American material -
and was cancelled with issue 70 in 1981. Nevertheless, it had revealed two
new, native stars to the French readers: Cyrus Tota with Photonik, and Jean-Yves
Mitton with Mikros.

Seventeen
episodes of Photonik were originally serialized in "Mustang".

Black Out (MU 54, 1980)

La Nuit des Dupes [The Night Of The Dupes] (MU 55, 1980)

David et Goliath [David And Goliath] (MU 56, 1980)

Pièges [Traps] (MU 57, 1980)

Le Bulbe [The Bulb] (MU 58, 1980)

Panique à Central Park [Panic In Central Park] (MU 59, 1980)

La Souricière [The Mousetrap] (MU 60, 1980)

Lachez les Fauves! [Unleash The Beasts!] (MU 61, 1981)

Petit-Homme-Blanc [Little-White-Man] (MU 62, 1981)

Et lEmpire seffondra! [And The Empire Collapsed!] (MU 63, 1981)

Cauchemar [Nightmare] (MU 64, 1981)

Resurrection ou La Fin dune Saga [Rebirth or The End Of A Saga] (MU
65, 1981)